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Nes Programming

caution

This page is still a Work in progress

Like C/64, there is still an active community around Nes and Super Nes programming nowadays.

After some trial and error, we found a project called 8Bit Workshop which offers an online and offline editor.

We chose it because:

  • Require no installation
  • A good number of examples are porvided
  • You can share your code on github easily
  • Can run offline too
  • You can code in C language, simpler for no 6502-assemply lovers

8bitworkshop's author, Steven Hugg, wrote some books on NES and Atari 2600 programming.

The tool uses a JavaScript based nes emulator, and it is quite fast with today browsers.

Before starting​

Be sure to read the NES Chapter, in particular the hardware overview.

First example: Initialization​

The following code is used to initialize the NES. It is composed of a set of macro, like NES_HEADER, which simply fill in the cartridge at $7ff0 with some header description. The floowing screenshot show you on the left the disassembly, on the center the code and on the right the NES emulator:

Workshop Example

Feel free to click on the image to enlarge it.